Bland and Forgettable
Summary
I was looking forward to Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver as I had a relatively fun time with the first movie, but I found this one a real slog to get through. It had a tedious first half and it’s all just pointless noise and pretty pictures with too much slo-mo. It’s maybe worth watching for one time as it’s harmless enough but it’s also unremarkable with nothing that makes it really stand out.
Plot: Kora and surviving warriors prepare to defend Veldt, their new home, alongside its people against the Realm. The warriors face their pasts, revealing their motivations before the Realm’s forces arrive to crush the growing rebellion.
Review: I remember quite enjoying the first Rebel Moon last year from what I remember of it, but like most Netflix films I only watched it once and have had no desire to revisit it.
The second part titled The Scargiver is out from today, but it hasn’t had much in the way of hype that I’ve noticed; it’s understandable why as it’s really not very good.
The first hour has barely any action to speak of as it tries to give us more backstory about the characters, but I still couldn’t care less about any of them.
The performances are all fine with Ed Skrein once again stealing the movie as the sneering villain Admiral Atticus Noble, but even then, I couldn’t quote a single line of dialogue from the lackluster script. 3 people working on the screenplay and there isn’t one memorable line? Amazing.
The Scargiver has all the usual Zack Snyder traits like overuse of slow motion, a noisy and tuneless music score and a sense of self importance lacking any humour whatsoever.
I was plain bored the first hour and I had to force myself to continue watching it; admittedly it does pick up in the second half with some impressive visuals and clearly a lot of effort went into creating it, but there just isn’t anything to the story and anytime someone died I was like “oh no, not that guy whose name I can’t remember!”
It’s disposable stuff with nothing remarkable or a single moment that will have you go “Hell yeah!” and by tomorrow I’ll have forgotten that the movie even exists.
There is a threat of a third film at the end, but is it really necessary? I’m certainly not in a rush to see any of the characters again as they’ve made zero impact on me or on pop culture in general. I never hear anyone talking about these movies and I think that’s a problem with streaming culture; everything is instant gratification and then on to the next product. I sound like a miserable old man but you know it’s true.
As ever Zack has promised director’s cuts of both movies coming soon, but like that meme said the other day “maybe just make a good film the first time around?”
Overall, Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver has some impressive visuals and the final hour has plenty of action, but it’s all utterly soulless and bland, likely to be forgotten within days.
